Big Idea:
We know what a "very hungry caterpillar" would eat as he goes through the week; I wonder what would a very hungry kindergartner eat?

We are going to start out the lesson reviewing some information that was previously taught. In doing this, I provide my students with a basis for building this lesson. Having something to build from strengthens the learning in the next lesson. I have included a slideshow if you are looking for other resources in which to tell the story.

Boys and girls, please join me on our rug, I have something I want to share with you.

The other day, we did a retelling together about the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Do you remember how we did that? I had a sock puppet of the caterpillar and some pictures of the things he ate. I passed out the food pictures to you students, and as I read, you came up and fed the caterpillar.

I am going to give you an opportunity to buddy with someone to do a sock puppet retelling just like we did. I have made sock puppets and food cards to help you with your retelling. As I read the story, one of you will be the caterpillar and one of you will feed the food. Then you will switch jobs and work as a team to retell the story without hearing the book

The reason that we are practicing the retelling is that we will be making our own books and you will have to be aware of the pattern. Let's begin.

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Resources

We start this part of the lesson still sitting on the rug. Together, we are creating a sample of the work that I want the children to do. Using the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar as our reference point, the children will be writing their own version. This is helpful to see if the children can extend the idea of a pattern book into their own writing.

Wow! You did a great job retelling the story! Now I want you to think back to the pattern that we heard in the story. On most of the pages, we heard similar words. Who can tell me what they heard? (On Monday, the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate through one apple, but he was still hungry.)

Each of those pages had these words: On ______, the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate through ____ _______, but he was still hungry. (I write these words on sentence strips ahead of time to save me time.)

We are going to write a book using the same pattern, but instead of being The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we are going to change the text to The Very Hungry Kindergartner. ( I turn over one of the sentence strips so it says this instead: On _________, the Very Hungry Kindergartner named _____...)

Look how we can take this idea and begin to build a story. Let's start by writing about Josh. On Monday, the Very Hungry Kindergartner named Josh, ate through one _________...Hmmm, Josh what is one thing that you would like to eat through? A pizza? Okay. Let's repeat what we have.

On Monday, the Very Hungry Kindergartner named Josh, ate through one pizza, but he was still hungry.

Do you see how we are following the pattern? We will write about each day in the week, include a food item, and draw a picture of it. I have also added many words to our word wallthat are food words. (See link) Hopefully, you will find your favorites there. Do you remember what happened to the caterpillar on Saturday? He ate so many different foods that he became sick.

Do you remember what he ate to make himself feel better? He felt sick, so he ate the leaf to help him feel better. Does your mom or dad give you certain things to help you feel better? Let's list some of those things, because we will need the list to help you when you are writing about Sunday. (cough syrup, tea, chicken soup, yucky medicine, popsicles, etc.)

I have printed a paper for you to write down your story. It has many of the same words that we talked about, but the beginning and the ending are a little different because you are not starting out as an egg or ending up as a butterfly. Let's read what are story's beginning and ending sound like. Do you see how you get to choose what you become at the end of the book? Use your imagination to finish the sentence: "____ went home for summer break and when it was done, _____had become a ____________."

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Resources

How will you know if you followed the pattern? You can read it to a friend or an adult, and have them be a critical listener. When you share with a friend it helps you to become a better reader.

Friends, when you are listening, are you hearing the pattern? Is their story making sense? What would be a kind way to tell your friend that you do not understand? (You could ask them to explain it, etc.)

If your friend is having a hard time understanding, then that means you have things you have things you need to fix before you bring it to me. When your book is ready, I would like to hear you read it to me.

When the students read to me, I will be looking for the days of the week, a number and a food item on each page. On the Saturday page, the child should have chosen a "remedy" from the board. Since I allow movement during writing time, children feel comfortable asking friends or adults in the room for help when they get stuck. Working on a structured writing piece can be challenging for students who are still not understanding or reading words. In these cases I try to pair them up with a student who is strong in language arts or with a volunteer helper (high school students, 5th grade buddy, parent, etc.).

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